Giving Bogus Reasons, Ford Government Rejects Disability Advocate’s Freedom of Information Application Seeking Final Report of Government-Appointed Independent Review of Disabilities Act – A Report Which The Disabilities Act Requires the Government to Make Public

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE

NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Giving Bogus Reasons, Ford Government Rejects Disability Advocate’s Freedom of Information Application Seeking Final Report of Government-Appointed Independent Review of Disabilities Act – A Report Which The Disabilities Act Requires the Government to Make Public

December 7, 2023 Toronto: Yesterday, the Ford Government rejected a Freedom of Information application that a disability advocate had filed to force it to make public a long-awaited Independent Review of the Government‘s implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Yet Section 41(4) of the AODA requires the Government to make that report public.

Last year, the Ford Government hand-picked Mr. Rich Donovan to conduct a mandatory Independent Review of the Government’s implementation of Ontario’s Disabilities Act. Donovan sent the Government his final report on June 6, 2023. That report recommends what the Government needs to do to tear down the many unfair accessibility barriers that now hurt 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities.

On November 11, 2023, After waiting five months for the Ford Government to make the Donovan final report public, blind disability advocate David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan AODA Alliance, resorted to a Freedom of Information application to force Premier Ford to reveal it. In its December 6, 2023 letter to Lepofsky (set out below), the Ford Government refused to disclose the final Donovan report, giving these reasons:

Section 29(1)(b)(i)(ii) of FIPPA requires that the requester be provided with the specific provision of FIPPA under which access is refused and the reason the provision applies to the record. Subsection 41(4) of the AODA requires that responsive record be submitted to the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The disclosure of the record would therefore reveal the substance of deliberations of the Executive Council and a Committee of the Executive Council. In addition, the ministry anticipates that the record will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly in the near future.

In addition, section 29(1)(b)(iii) of FIPPA requires that the requester be provided with the name and position of the person responsible for making the decision. This decision was approved by Meenu Sikand, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility.

“The Ford Government’s reasons for refusing to disclose the final report of the Rich Donovan Independent Review of the Disabilities Act are transparently bogus,” said AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, who is also a retired lawyer and now a part-time law professor. “They say they cannot disclose this report because disclosing it would reveal Cabinet deliberations. However, none of the three prior AODA Independent Reviews ever mentioned Cabinet deliberations and there is no proof Cabinet has spent so much as thirty seconds discussing the Donovan final report. Disclosing that report cannot reveal anything about what Cabinet discussed. Even if the Donovan Report referred to a Cabinet discussion, which we seriously doubt, the Government could black out that passage in an instant, and then disclose the rest of the report.”

“The Disabilities Act absolutely requires the Government to make this report public, whether or not that would reveal Cabinet discussions. The Government’s letter confirms that it intends to eventually make the Rich Donovan final report public, so that its stated concern about revealing secret Cabinet discussions is obviously a smoke screen,” added Lepofsky. “The Government vaguely says that the Accessibility Ministry anticipates that the Government will table Donovan’s final report in the Legislature ‘in the near future’ without giving a specific commitment on when it will end its foot-dragging.”

Donovan’s Final Report recommends what the Ford Government should do to kick-start sluggish Government action. The public, including 2.9 Ontarians with disabilities, has a right to know now what he recommended.

Almost five years ago, former Lieutenant Governor David Onley told the Ford Government that progress on accessibility was “glacial” and that Ontario remains full of “soul-crushing barriers.” Echoing this last March, Rich Donovan gave the Government an Interim Report that described the implementation of the AODA over 17 years as “a series of failures and missed opportunities.”

“The Ford Government was able to make Donovan’s March 1, 2023 Interim Report public just eight days after receiving it,” said Lepofsky. “Yet it inexplicably has kept Donovan’s Final Report secret for six months.”

In a letter sent to Premier Ford on November 10, 2023, the AODA Alliance pleaded with the Premier to show new leadership on tearing down accessibility barriers that hurt Ontarians with disabilities, to agree to an urgent meeting with the AODA Alliance, and to direct his Accessibility Minister to speak to the AODA Alliance (whose Minister’s Office has not responded to the AODA Alliance in more than two years).

On November 17, 2023, the Cabinet Office Correspondence Unit responded to that letter for Premier Ford. It flatly turned down the AODA Alliance’s request to meet. It referred the issues raised to Accessibility Minister Raymond Cho, who yet again has not responded to the AODA Alliance.

Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

For background, read:

The March 1, 2023 Interim Report of the Rich Donovan 4^th AODA Independent Review
The January 31, 2019 Final Report of the David Onley 3^rd AODA Independent Review
The AODA Alliance’s May 31, 2023 brief to the Rich Donovan AODA Independent Review on the recommendations for reform that he should make
The AODA Alliance’s February 6, 2023 brief to the Rich Donovan AODA Independent Review on the findings that he should make.
The March 20, 2023 Toronto Star editorial echoing the March 1, 2023 Initial Report by the Rich Donovan AODA Independent Review

Text of the December 6, 2023 Letter from the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility to AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky

(Note: Personal Information is omitted)

December 06, 2023

David Lepofsky

Dear David Lepofsky:

RE: File Number MSAA 23-007

This letter is in response to your request filed under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (hereafter “the Act”) received by the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility for the following:

“The final report of the 4th Independent Review of the implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005, which was conducted by Mr. Rich Donovan, and which was submitted to the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility on or about June 6, 2023. In 2022, the Ontario Government appointed Mr. Donovan to conduct this Independent Review of the AODA pursuant to Section 41 of the AODA. Pursuant to Section 41(4) of the AODA, this report must be made public.”

A search for responsive information was completed and it was determined that the Ministry has one record responsive to your request. The request for access to the record is denied in its entirety pursuant to section 12(1) cabinet records and section 22(1) information soon to be published under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

You may request the Information and Privacy Commissioner to review this decision within thirty days from the date of this letter. You can do so by filing an appeal online at www.ipc.on.ca. The appeal fee is $25.00 (for general record requests) or $10.00 (for personal information requests). Alternatively, appeals can still be mailed with a cheque or money order payable to “Minister of Finance” to: Registrar, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, 2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400, Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, along with the following information:

The file number listed at the beginning of this letter;
A copy of this letter; and
A copy of the original request for information.

Please contact Patricia Fiorini, FOI Program Advisor at 437-228-9305 or myself at 647-646-5503 if you have any questions. We would appreciate you using the above-mentioned request number assigned to your file in any further correspondence.

Sincerely,

Original signed by Patricia Fiorini

For:

Padma D. de Souza

Team Lead, FIPP and RIM

Corporate Support Unit

Encl.: Section 29(1)(b) of the Act

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act

R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER F.31

Contents of notice of refusal

29 (1) Notice of refusal to give access to a record or a part thereof under section 26 shall set out,…

(b) where there is such a record,

(i) the specific provision of this Act under which access is refused,

(ii) the reason the provision applies to the record,

(iii) the name and position of the person responsible for making the decision, and

(iv) that the person who made the request may appeal to the Commissioner for a review of the decision. R.S.O. 1990, c. F.31, s. 29 (1).